Anonymous wrote:She should get her butt to an Al Anon meeting. She will learn that she isn't responsible for his addiction. They will help walk her through leaving him and guide her through taking care of her needs and her child's need and then working on still remaining supportive to her STBX.
She should speak to a lawyer so that she can protect her own finances and the assets. Her DH is likely to spend down everything he can if he gets deeper into his addiction. His bad behavior as a husband is probably directly related to his addiction as well. I say this as a recovering addict myself.
I wish them both good luck.
I must have gone to different Al Anon meetings than those referenced above. Yeah, they told me it was not my fault, but I still must work the 12 steps myself --steps 4 & 6 --about what was wrong with me first. As for helping me leave and guiding me through taking care of my needs, these topics never came up.
I know 12 step meetings differ in tone and content. The many Al Anon meetings I went to made sure that as soon as I cleaned up my act, I would be better, but they meetings were only about the steps and not the real world with an addict.